Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) is a recent technological development that is designed to increase the areal density (AD) of written data by recording data in a magnetic recording medium having higher coercivity, Hc, than can be written by a magnetic field from a magnetic recording head without assistance. By heating the surface of the magnetic recording medium with a laser spot during write operations, coercivity of the magnetic recording medium is reduced so that the magnetic field of the magnetic recording head can record data in the magnetic recording medium at high AD.